Frugal MacDoogal Wine & Liquor Warehouse

DoubleSimcoe

New York

4.2/5  rDev +6.1%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $

I came down with the wife to Charlotte to visit a friend and drove over to the South Carolina border- another state to my count and the huge Frugal MacDoogal!!!

This is a really nice liquor store with a tremendous selection of wine and liquor. As far as beer goes, it has a solid long shelf of craft offerings at incredibly low prices. Also some cold beer on the back of the store.

Lots of Dogfish (90 Minute 4-pack for $8.99), Flying Dog (Double Dog 4-pack for $8.99), some Weyerbacher and North Coast... and rare stuff, at least for me. How about Great Divide in 4-packs? I had never seen it before!

Lots of local beer too, including Thomas Creek and Olde Mecklenburg (of which they sell growlers).

I was offered help by an employee there, but most of the folks did not look like they'd be craft-beer aficionados.

I would come back if I were a local. Not a mind-blowing selection, but more than solid. And great prices!

09-19-2010 01:42:47 | More by DoubleSimcoe

CBlack85

South Carolina

3.65/5  rDev -7.8%
quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | $$

Frugal MacDoogal has a fair selection of good craft beers. They also have a fair amount of dusty old bottles that have been on the shelf for a while.

It would be nice to see them start carrying a wider variety of popular craft beers, They devote quite a bit of thier floor space to the macro brews (Coors, Budweiser, Miller, etc...)

They have a wall of singles, mostly dominated by 22 oz bottles. They do not have many 12 oz singles to choose from, and they don't allow you to create your own 6 pack...

09-18-2009 20:51:09 | More by CBlack85

jbhuxley

South Carolina

3.7/5  rDev -6.6%
quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | $$

Frugal has a decent beer selection. You will not find very many specialty beers here. The majority of their beers are imports. Their selection of craft beers is about on par with Harris Teeter, a local grocery chain.

The other half of the store is devoted to liquor. As for liquor it is a great value. Again, you won't find anything exotic, but their prices are just about as low as you'll find.

If you are looking for specialty craft beers, go 2 exits down to Grapevine, or Brawley's in Charlotte.

07-27-2009 18:25:23 | More by jbhuxley

Bung

North Carolina

3.7/5  rDev -6.6%
quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | $$

Good selection, very good prices for the most part. For really rare stuff you need to go to Brawleys though. I go here for session beers because it is closest to my home. For the south side of Charlotte, this is the best hands down. Space about equally split between imports, large micros from California/west coast, locals and macros. Best stuff I've seen, Yeti, Old Rasputin, Old Stock, some Stone and Bells.
I have noticed old beer here as well. For the most part I wouldn't care, except a good amount of their beers get way too much sun exposure through their front windows.
Large selection of wine I have not looked through. Large selection of liquor in the other half of the store, which is extreamly reasonable if you're having a large party.

01-20-2009 01:31:24 | More by Bung

NHGrafx

Massachusetts

3.55/5  rDev -10.4%
quality: 4 | service: 2 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I was just here today on my way home from a trip to Lake Wylie. I decided to give it a try and was quite impressed. Not what I was expecting at all. They have a fantastic selection of Germans and Belgians here. I was surprised to see they had Delerium Tremens, the only other place I have seen it was at Brawley's. There was one small shelf devoted to the nice imports (mostly singles and large bottles) and craft beers. Not a lot, but what they did have was good stuff. In the back they had tons of cases of more common beers like Miller, Budweiser, Sam Adams, etc. I ended up getting an Orval Trappist Ale, Westmalle Tripel and Rochefort 10. Prices are decent, the staff was not very helpful as they seemed to be pretty clueless about beers other than Budweiser, but that wasn't a problem for me and probably not for most people on this website. Overall a pretty decent place. Very convenient location too, just off I-77.

09-05-2008 02:00:18 | More by NHGrafx

MarkSCCOT

South Carolina

3.8/5  rDev -4%
quality: 5 | service: 3 | selection: 3 | $$

I managed to stop here on my way back to Charleston from Charlotte. The selection is decent, but all of the brews were ones I had encountered in other stores in SC. They did have Sam Adams Imperial Halertau Pilsner and Terrapin All American Imperial Pilsner. I also snagged a Uerige Alt Beer Classic I wanted.
As for service, the clerk had never heard of Terrapin Wake 'N' Bake which is astounding!!!
I did like their policy of posting the cash and credit prices (cash discounted) on the shelf tags. Also saw many shelf talkers.
In summary...head over heels better than Total Wine ever has been, but...why go here when Brawley's is 10 miles away?

10-18-2007 22:21:17 | More by MarkSCCOT

BRoss242

Louisiana

4.15/5  rDev +4.8%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I visited this store today for the first time to see what kind of selection they would have since South Carolina raised the alcohol limit on beer. The store was set up like a grocery store with lots of shelves, but only one containing beers.
The selection was pretty decent, it looks like they specialize in imports with three quarters of the shelf being devoted to lot's of good German, Belgian, and English beers.
I was also greated by the wine manager on duty and he said that they usually get around 5-10 new beers a week since the abw went up to 14%.
I ended up leaving with 6 750ml Belgians for right at $50, this place also gives discounts on cash purchases which I didn't use.
Overall I would definitely say that this place is worth while visiting if you are in the South Charlotte area.

07-06-2007 22:22:28 | More by BRoss242

SaCkErZ9

Florida

4/5  rDev +1%
quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Stopped by here on my way back from Columbia. I have seen this place many times on my way back but never felt like stopping. Today I did.

I wasnt greeted or even acknowledged as I walked through the front door. A huge warehoue with tons of beers. However, since this store is located off of the first (or last) SC exit on I77, they are still under the 6% abv cap.

As far as selection goes, this has to be one of the best in SC. Greens in Columbia and Spartanburg have around the same stuff as well. One interesting thing I saw in the store was some He'brew. They had Genesis, 10:10, and Jewbilation, all of which are around 10% and the abv was clearly labeled on the bottle. I dont know how those got in there but they had 22oz bombers of each.

I decided not to purchase anything since Brawleys is just five miles up the road with some higher abv stuff (but Frugal has everything under 6%) like barleywines and impy stouts and the like. Awesome for SC I suppose.

03-30-2007 01:00:44 | More by SaCkErZ9

Enola

North Carolina

4.4/5  rDev +11.1%
quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$

This place is easy to find just off Carowinds Blvd. There is two seperate sides for liqour and beer. The beer side also housed the wines. There were four taps for growlers to go and I think these were three macros and Cottonwood's Low Down Brown. They had a section for mixed sixers. They had many things here but nothing over the cap of course but I did not count off in the reveiw for that. Not their fault for some stupid law. If the cap ever does lift in SC this place will be hard to beat. The prices were reasonable. I will return here when in the area. Service was fair as I was helped promptly when I asked about a certain selection.

03-02-2007 22:04:17 | More by Enola

wcudwight

North Carolina

4.15/5  rDev +4.8%
quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 5 | $$

This place is truely a diamond in the rough. After a boring beer-wise trip to Myrtle Beach I had pretty much come to the conclusion that SC was a waste-land beer wise. Thank goodness I decided to pull into Frugal MacDoogals as we were traveling 77 on my way home. It gave me hope and if SC ever pops the cap this will be one of the leading beer stores in the region if not the leading beer store. The selection is great for a store that has to fight a 5% cap on alcohol. I was very happy to find several beers that I can't get in my area. The prices are good and great on thier growlers. The service is limited to just people at the check out counter...but they do move you through pretty quick even though it was busy while I was there.
If you miss stopping at Frugal MacDoogles you could very possibly miss the best beer store in S.C.
Now if I'd only have saved my beer $ in Myrtle Beach to spend at Frugals. I won't make that mistake again.

08-10-2006 04:14:07 | More by wcudwight